St. Paul’s police chief has a four-word message for young people: Put down your guns.

Talking on Thursday, June 28, about an increase in gun violence reports in the city, Thomas Smith said, “When that bullet leaves that gun, you can never, ever take it back. So I’ve asked young people in the city … think first, think before you act.”

In the first five months of this year, two types of gun violence reports were up 65 percent, compared with the average for the same period between 2008 and 2010, a Pioneer Press analysis of St. Paul police data found.

Smith on Thursday said he went to both the community and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and asked for help when he saw an increase in shots-fired reports and other incidents “within a couple different factions” in “small, geographic areas.”

St. Paul police have recovered 348 firearms this year, a 67 percent increase over the same time last year, Smith said. Shots-fired calls are up 42 percent, compared with the same period in 2011, Smith said at a news conference outside New Hope Baptist Church in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood.

Reports of shots fired and aggravated assaults with guns in St. Paul started to increase last fall, the Pioneer Press analysis found. But the winter months saw the largest increases; the reports were more than double what has been typical.

In April and May, the number of reports was slightly higher than normal.

Tyrone Terrill, African-American Leadership Council chairman, asked parents to talk to their children.

“These guns are taking 5-year-old, 10-year-old, 15-year-old, 20-year-old children from our community way too early, so it’s about our community taking responsibility for what’s going on,” he said. “Do we have a partnership? Yes, but we need a family partnership to address what’s going on in our community.”

In North Minneapolis, a 5-year-old boy sleeping on his grandmother’s couch was killed Tuesday when someone fired at the house.

Smith said he believes mentoring is important, and a way for community groups to try to get to the roots of the problems. There have been successes, Smith said, adding that he believes the gun violence is less than what it would be without the community partnerships.

But Smith said that’s not the only approach. The ATF deputizes local police officers, including those in St. Paul, to follow gun cases where they take them, and to seek federal charges and long prison sentences.

“For those individuals that are transporting or selling guns in the city of St. Paul to our youth and others, and for those people that are using guns indiscriminately on our streets in the city of St. Paul, we are going to come after you,” Smith said.

The Pioneer Press analysis looked at two categories of reports for police service in St. Paul — “shots fired” and aggravated assaults with guns. The numbers don’t speak to whether police found evidence that a crime took place.

For shots fired, especially, police say they check out every report but can’t always verify whether the sound someone heard was a gun fired vs. a car backfiring, firecrackers or something else.

The aggravated assault reports encompass cases of individuals being shot, being shot at, having a gun pointed at them or the implied threat of a gun.

Among the reasons Smith cited for the increases: the mild winter and what he’s heard from young people who say it’s easy to get guns and who believe they have to carry them for protection.

St. Paul officers recently started passing out “Think First” cards to young people, which list the consequences of having a criminal record, from being sent to adult prison to not being able to get jobs or a driver’s license.

Smith said St. Paul is still a safe place.

“We want to stay that way,” he said. “We will do that through partnerships, but we’ll also do it for those that want to cause harm in our city through strong and tough enforcement.”

Shirley Thompson, 73, came to the Thursday news conference from her nearby house, where she’s lived for 50 years. She walked an ATF special agent around the block afterward. She talked about recent graffiti and other problems.

“Do you guys have a neighborhood watch, or are you the neighborhood watch?” the agent asked.

Thompson said she heard there were shots fired in the area a week or two ago, but that was unusual.

“I keep my block under control. I really do,” said the woman who doesn’t hesitate to call police when she sees problems.

Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety. Gottfried lived in St. Paul as a young child and returned to the Twin Cities after graduating from the University of Maryland. You can reach her at 651-228-5262.

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